change versus more of the same

September 27, 2006

Ken Schwaber helped create the agile software development practice called Scrum about 10 years ago. Since then, it has exploded in usage and is now becoming common at many small development shops, as well as teams within companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google. The latest buzz on Scrum is that it's being adopted heavily by video game makers. I have been a huge fan of Scrum for the past two years and had the opportunity to utilize the methodology on a few different projects.

An hour of Ken Schwaber talking about Scrum is normally a lot more expensive than free, so I highly recommend you check it out.

Here are the three things I love about Scrum:

1. Scum is extremely powerful in its simplicity. The basics can be explained in less than 30 minutes. The features of Scrum are regular, short iterations or releases (typically 30 days), complete visibility of the project's status through short, daily meetings and simple charts, and a regular evaluation of priorities based on what's been accomplished and business/market changes.

2. Scrum is cheap even though the benefits are huge. Buy a book and you have nearly everything you need. There is no expensive software to buy (an Excel spreadsheet will do in most cases), but if you want something more slick, there are two free options: ScrumWorks and VersionOne. I actually recommend Excel or a homegrown solution. If you see the need down the line, you can become certified for approximately $1000, but it's not a requirement.

3. Scrum can be used outside of software development. Many of the Scrum principles work with any team project, from video projects to writing to graphic design.

September 26, 2006

Late in the evening, as my birthday came to a close, I received one last birthday present - Robert Scoble launched his brand-new show! Yes, the ScobleShow went live with 7(!) videos as well as an old-fashioned, audio-only podcast. Of course, Scoble didn't come right out and say he was trying to launch on my birthday, but when you connect the dots, read the blog, and watch the two late nightearly morning videos, it's pretty obvious :) I feel bad now because I tried to get The Blogging Church published on his birthday, but it just didn't work out. Ha!

The shortest video is 5 minutes and the longest is 34! It's a really impressive, diverse group to launch with: Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun, photographer Thomas Hawk, SAP, Tim Bray, Jeremy Wright, JotSpot, SmugMug, and Printing for Less. Scoble's love for what he's doing, fascination with new things, grand curiosity, and respect for the people he's talking to you will make this show a huge success. It would be hard to match his enthusiasm, knowledge, or Outlook contacts.

Scoble is asking for feedback, so here are my thoughts. The videos themselves are very well done, entertaining and enlightening. I would have launched with the Jonathan Schwartz and Thomas Hawk videos to give people a taste, and then added one a day for the next week, but I can't think of anything else I would change. Most of the following concerns the show's website and promotion.

1. The RSS feed and How to Subscribe should be much more prominent.

2. I'm sure more and more people will soon get the show via RSS, but I find it interesting that the number of comments per episode goes down as you go further down the page. It will interesting to solve the problem of how to draw interest to all of the videos, not just the ones above the fold.

3. I've seen the show referred to as "The Scoble Show" and "ScobleShow". I hope they settle on "The Scoble Show". For media, why limit yourself to a URL-driven, Web 2.0 name?

4. The show's tagline doesn't do it justice. "Robert Scoble with geeks, technology, and developers." How about, "The Scoble Show: The geeks, leaders, and generally cool people behind the latest stuff." If Scoble's name needs to be in the description as well, perhaps "Robert Scoble's unscripted conversations with the geeks, leaders, and really cool people behind what's next."

5. If the videos continue to fall into certain categories (Demo, CEO, For Geeks Only), it would be helpful to visually distinguish those on the page and group them as they collect. A person might even want to subscribe to a feed of just one type of interview.

6. I know more video formats are on the way, but would it make sense to offer the videos as an MP3 as well? Obviously, the demos wouldn't work, but most people don't have the ability to watch video on the go and an audio version would greatly expand the potential audience.

7. I would incorporate a Scoble picture into the show page.

8. The new PodTech homepage is a challenge as it presents a lot of information and content without any guidance or context, other than what's on top and bigger must be more important. I understand all of this is a work in progress though, so it's fine for the launch.

9. The posts on the Scoble Show page all show "More..." links to read the full post, but there's only 1-2 additional sentences in most cases. If that's customizable, I would expand that somewhat so you can get the whole clip description on the page without having to click through.

10. This is a minor geek thing, but the Scoble Show posts show up on the show's page and on the PodTech homepage as well. However, on the PodTech homepage, the number of comments is not accurate (they all show "No Comments" when most of the clips have 5-10).

11. A final thing. PodTech's John Furrier posted about the new site and new show, encouraging people to check it out and let him know what they thought. Four people left comments throughout the day, but someone from PodTech has yet to respond, which can make it more difficult to get a conversation and sense of community started.

Congratulations on the launch, Robert! You should be very proud. I know you have a lot of killer stuff on the way and I can't wait!

I turned 36 yesterday, just four days after Ben's 11th birthday! It's been a great week. We celebrated Ben's birthday on Thursday as a family. Since his birthday and Christmas present this year is the soon-to-be-released Nintendo Wii (thanks to all who offered advice), he only received one actual birthday present from us - a Razor scooter (the human-powered kind). He loves it and has used it nearly every day since. He chose Sonic for dinner and we watched a very interesting movie with the homemade dessert of his choice - a chocolate bundt cake.

Friday night was his official birthday party, which for the third year in a row was at a local hotel. We love the hotel sleepover. The hotel has a very nice indoor pool that we've been blessed to have to ourselves every year. After an hour or two in the pool, we head to the room for party favors or fun activities of some kind, then eat pizza, open presents, have dessert, and watch a movie. Ben chose The Princess Bride for the movie - I love that boy! We get to enjoy the free breakfast the next morning and maybe one more trip to the pool, then it's all over by 9am. The kids love it, Ben gets to feel like the king of the world for a night, and you can't ask for a simpler experience for Lori and I.

This year's edition went very well, though it will probably be the last one. I think these parties work best between ages 7-11. Any younger and you'd need more parents to help with the kids. Any older and you start running out of room and it gets more and more difficult to choose a date that doesn't conflict with someone's schedule.

We celebrated my birthday on Sunday with a wonderful breakfast, presents, and a great dinner. Ben bought me a book (with his own money, of course) by one of our new favorites, and then presented me with a homemade book of his own that was probably the most amazing thing I've ever received. It featured a portrait of me, a haiku, two acrostics, and more sweetness than should be allowed in this life.

Lori gave me some fantastic clothes, a great book, and a chai gift card, along with an absolutely brilliant gift. A year ago, they got me a bike odometer, which I love, but the manual was lost through a series of unfortunate events before I ever mastered the numerous settings. She managed to track down another copy of the manual and photocopy it for me, something I've been hoping to do for months. Thoughtful gifts are the best gifts.

September is always a month of reflection for me. Not only do Ben and I celebrate our birthdays, but September is also the month I started working at Fellowship Church, now six years ago! It's truly breathtaking to look back over these years and see all that God has done in my life and at Fellowship. I can't wait to see what comes next!

September 17, 2006

This weekend, Ed Young started a brand-new series called Sexual Revolution. The first message, Stripped, was the best talk on sex I have ever heard. Sex should be divine - we devalue it, ourselves, and our creator when we treat it as nothing more than an appetite beyond our control. Whether you consider yourself a believer or not, take a few minutes to check it out. Besides, how many times do you get to see a bed in church?

September 16, 2006

Next week, my son Ben will turn 11. I find it so fascinating how each new year brings about interesting changes and challenges. At least it's fascinating if you only have one child and he or she is not yet a teenager!

With his birthday and the start of the school year, September has become our month to really think about what we could be doing different or better as parents. We usually come up with a list (yes, we do love our lists) that includes some new freedoms along with new responsibilities. Ben has such a great attitude that he loves these changes and embraces them with enthusiasm. Not always, though - when we said it would be a good idea if he served somewhere in school last year as a way of giving back, he wasn't too keen.

This year was an eclectic mix. First, we decided that he needed to be more helpful with family chores and projects. When you only have one child, it's easy to give him or her a few specific jobs, but then handle everything else yourselves (especially for impatient parents like ourselves). We started noticing that Lori and I were rushing around the house, emptying dishwashers, cleaning up counters, and organizing the garage while he relaxed on the couch because he was "done with my part." We realized that family work needed to be a team effort, so we don't create a "that's not in my job description" home.

Second, we noticed that we were spending way too much time debating and arguing about various small decisions, from when to do homework to bedtime to what to wear to church. I know this is as common as could be, but it is especially easy in one-child homes. Though these are usually very calm and sometimes interesting conversations, they eventually become exhausting. I love to debate things and he's really very good at making his case, but eventually a decision has to be made and we need to move on. We decided that he can offer his alternative plan or any reasons he thinks his idea is better, then we make the decision and the conversation is over. This is just for the day-to-day questions, not ideas for his birthday party or what sport to play this year. And many, many things are left entirely up to him.

The third thing is related to the second. Ben has been playing piano for 3 years and never misses a chance to tell us that he would stop if he could. He's extremely good at it, though, and we love the discipline of working at something regularly, the musical knowledge, and the wonderful way it challenges his mind. And, deep down, he seems to love it, too, but he's not a fan of the constant practicing. Since one of our daily debates is about piano practice, we finally decided to allow him to choose when and how long he practices. His only responsibility is to practice 3 hours each week.

He loves this, and so do we. By giving him the responsibility, he now has a sense of ownership. He is also learning to budget his time - he might have to say no to a fun activity later in the week because he's put off so much of his practice. And don't we all like to do something more when no one is telling us to do it?

The final change came from a recent Wall Street Journal article. It was about allowances (big surprise!). The point was that allowances are there to teach kids about money and responsibility, but if you only give your child enough for fun spending, and not enough to cover things like presents for friends and family, they really aren't learning much at all. Also, if they always know that mom and dad will cover those expenses, make up the difference, or give a 3-month advance when they really, really, really want something, then they're actually learning bad habits.

So this year, Ben is going to receive a larger allowance. He will have to tithe 10%, save 20%, and then the rest is up to him. Here's the catch, though. He will be using his money, and his money only, to buy birthday presents for his friends, and presents for Lori and I on birthdays, Christmas, and Mother's/Father's Day. In other words, he'll need to save and budget for things that are coming later in the year, or for big ticket items he hopes to get. In the end, he'll have about the same amount of money to spend on whatever he wants as he does now, he'll just be responsible for more. It will be very interesting to see just how generous he is with gifts when it's his own money.

What's funny so far is that Ben is doing great with these things - it's Lori and I that are struggling to stay consistent and not take the path of least resistence.

Finally, there were other signs of Ben getting older this fall: he got glasses for the first time and attended his first wedding. The pictures tell the tale. During the wedding, I pointed out to Lori that if Ben got married at the same age we did, we'd be attending his wedding in 10 years! Bonus advice: This is not something most mothers want to hear.

Yes, I know that Ben's glasses only add to the whole Mini-Me thing we got going on. And yes, I know that Lori is one incredibly beautiful woman!

September 06, 2006

Scoble was recently interviewed by one of his new Podtech co-workers. If you've ever wanted to hear a quick and clear case for blogging, this is it. Scoble presents an engaging, enthusiastic, truly heartfelt argument for corporations and organizations to embrace blogging and join the conversation happening all around them.

"If I don't find you, you don't exist."

As he shows, blogging is a powerful tool that allows you to talk to Google (marketing and search results) and to the people who are part of these word-of-mouth networks.

If someone told me I had 15 minutes to convince them of why blogging is worth doing, this is what I would want them to hear.

September 05, 2006

Since Lori is now writing odes to coffee, I thought I should share my drink of choice: the vanilla chai. I have never been anything close to a coffee drinker, though I did enjoy quite a few cafe mochas for about two years. I stopped when I saw our caffeine addiction begin to tear our family apart. Kidding! Actually, I stopped when it just started to seem like too much sugar and caffeine for my high-speed metabolism.

A couple of years later, our friend Katie introduced me to the vanilla chai. Since I also don't like any form of tea, I was immensely skeptical. However, our church cafe made a version that was very creamy and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I know many of you also love vanilla chai, so I will admit right now that I actually don't enjoy the Starbucks version very much - it's good, but a bit too authentic for me.

It's fun to have a beverage of choice since so many meetings and social activities seem to center around liquid caffeine. Still, these drinks were a rare treat for me as I've never been able to embrace the idea of spending $3+ on a regular basis. A few of those can buy a steady stream of books and music (which, tragically, go so much better with the aforementioned drug).

So, ever the loyal enablers, Katie and Lori started to supplying me with home versions of chai, which can be considerably cheaper. These were very good, but then we stumbled upon the best of them all and I am officially hooked: Oregon Vanilla Chai Latte Mix. Not only is very tasty, but it's organic in all the right ways and made by a cool company. Side note: Even though it's a cool company, you'll find their products much cheaper at Target, Amazon, or various natural food stores.

The instructions say to "just add water", but that is not what I recommend. Since I'm endlessly searching for ways to make it creamier, I use 4oz of water and 8oz of milk. Using the aerolatte to froth the milk takes it to the next level. And what's truly wonderful is enjoying this terrific drink, which I like better than any I have found in a cafe, for about $0.55!

Since the weather in Texas has caused me to wonder whether God intended for humans to live here, I've had very few chances to enjoy this drink. Obviously, I do not yet qualify for my addiction club membership since I actually need it to be somewhat cool to drink a hot beverage. This long weekend, though, was beautiful and filled with rain (yes, those two often go together here) and I was finally able to share Lori's mug-filled mornings.

There is a great way to enjoy chai during hot summer days, though. Go to Starbucks and order a vanilla creme chai frappuchino. It's quite an experience.